I had a total of about 45 minutes to spend at the American Library
Association
annual conference exhibits (you can spend hours there), so I promised myself I would
ignore all the book sellers and not even look at the list of authors
signing books. But... on my way out of the exhibit hall, I saw a
familiar unique name - Niffenegger. No line, she was just standing there
signing a pile of books, so I went up to her. I got flustered and couldn't remember the
names of her books, but knew I had read three of them. (
The Time Traveler's Wife,
Her Fearful Symmetry, and
The Three Incestuous Sisters) So I got this,
her latest book, half price, signed and all, and having met the author!
I
read it on the bus ride home - a dark modern fairy tale of a postman who
falls in love with a raven, and they have a little girl, who wants to
fly, but can't as she has arms. There are fantastic elements, and today's reality - as in the girl going to school and college.
The story is accompanied by Niffenegger's hauntingly beautiful illustrations, which are perfect for the story. I loved the nest on the bed.
In the author's afterward she tells how
she wrote this fairy tale at the request of a choreographer for the Royal Ballet of
London, so this story may become a dance sometime. I can see this. The
movie Black Swan comes to mind.
No comments:
Post a Comment